A Blog (shortened from weblog) is an internet software on which an individual (or a group of users) produces an ongoing narrative in form of text (blog), video (vlog), or audio (podcast) for an audience. The audience, on the other hand, responds back by posting comments or ranking the published items. The audience can also subscribe to the stream of published content using dynamically generated Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds from the blogging software.

Blogs are among the most powerful online social marketing tools used by companies of all sizes. Blogs are also used by individual Journalists, Developers, Designers, Researchers, Scientists, Artists, and Hobbyists who wish to share their ideas with the outside world or promote certain concepts, services, or products.

Create, Edit and Publish blog posts

You don't need to be a web designer to be able to use a blog. It is like an online word processor so you can easily create a new post, write it and publish it. You can assign a blog post to multiple categories in the same time. 

Build an audience and communicate with them

The most powerful aspect of a blog is that it is a social medium. People read your blog posts and write comments and feedbacks. You can start a discussion after each blog post with your audience. You can also moderate the discussions as you go.

Further customize your blog

A blog software is very modular and it can be further customized using additional plugins which allow you to extend the abilities of your blog such as integration with other Social Networking Sites ( Digg.com, Facebook, ... ), enhancing your search engine ranking (SEO), or fighting unwanted SPAM.

Broadcast your content through RSS feeds

And of course one of the best features of a blog is the fact that content are automatically broadcasted through Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. This means you user's can subscribe to your feed and be notified automatically each time that you update your blog. You can also add your RSS feed to other social networking websites such as Facebook or Technorati to access a larger audience. 

Search Engine Optimized (SEO) by nature

A blog software also creates search engine friendly pages and links.

Technical Information

 Blogging, Vlogging, or Podcasting solutions are often implemented using Wordpress , Drupal , or Joomla! CMS. All of them are Open Source LAMP applications. LAMP means that they run using Linux operating system, Apache Server, MySql Database, and PHP Programming Language.